Stay Secure in Google Drive

Olga Weis24 Apr at 17:27

We all are aware of data security issues these days – thanks to omnipresent Internet, a lot of our sensitive data becomes available to others without our knowledge. It is absolutely necessary to check regularly if our data is safe and protected from unauthorized access. Let us start with the data we upload on cloud storage services – we’ll have a closer look at Google Drive security. A lot of us use this service extensively – Google Docs, an integral part of Google Drive, provides a lot of benefits when it comes to storing and collaborating on documents with others. How safe is it?

Choose what content to upload

First thing we need to consider is the Terms of Service that regulate Google Drive privacy. Most of us would have a glance at the document and click ‘Agree’ to never return to this page again. It’s a long document indeed, and one thing we wanted you to keep in mind is that Google, as a company, must follow the legislation of the countries where it operates. So if a law enforcement body tells Google to provide access to your documents, it will be granted to them. If you’ve got something to hide from your government – we hope you don’t – you are better off storing it somewhere else.

Watch your Google account security

Google Drive is linked to your Google account; it means that if someone gets access to the latter, the content of the former becomes available to them too. Forgetting to log out of your account can risk the safety of your documents – as simple as that. Drive doesn’t log you out automatically, even if you were inactive for a long while.

But don’t panic yet – Google has a two-factor authentication, and you will be notified if there is an attempt to login from an unusual location. There is a code sheet you can use to get access to your account, if you get locked out of it.

Stay alert

There will always be phishing attacks and hacked servers, someone might steal password to your wi-fi and redirect sensitive data to a compromised data. In the end of the days, there should be some price paid for all the advantages provided by cloud storage services. To minimize the risk, you can encrypt Google docs.

Use Special Software

While no software can guarantee safety of your data, some can certainly increase it. CloudMounter can mount Google Drive or rather map Google Drive as network drive on your Mac so you can manage its contents from Finder in an easy and efficient way. You can also set it up in such a way that you get access to Google Drive only via the application. Even if someone manages to log into Drive from another app, they won’t be able to read your data. The developer added a feature that enables you to encrypt Google Drive.

To conclude: if you follow basic security rules, use Google Drive encryption and mount cloud drive with the help of special software, the chances of your data being compromised are minimal – stay safe.